2 26 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



or diuresis, diseases of the digestive or urinary organs or womb, 

 ergoted grasses, etc. If there is no relaxation of the pelvic 

 ligaments and falling in at the side of the rump, no enlargement 

 of the vulva, no dilatation of the neck of the womb, nor any 

 enlargement of the bag, place in a secluded place and keep 

 quiet by repeated doses of opium. The pains will usually 

 subside. Even if otherwise apparently prepared the closed 

 neck of the womb will demand similar rest and anodynes, 

 though a little solid extract of belladonna may in this case be 

 smeared round the neck of the womb to favour relaxation. 



Induration of the Neck of the Womb is often errone- 

 ously supposed to exist in these cases, but such a conclusion 

 need not be reached until the quieting treatment has been 

 followed for one or two days without success, and the neck of 

 the womb remains rigid, nodular, and gristly. Being fully 

 convinced that the closure is due to disease it may be dilated 

 by passing in a narrow-bladed, blunt-pointed (probe-pointed) 

 knife, and cutting to the depth of a quarter of an inch in four 

 directions, upward, downward, to the right and left. Then the 

 hand may be introduced with the fingers and thumb drawn into 

 the form of a cone and the passage gradually dilated. Or the 

 sponge tents used by the physician may be employed. 



Twisting of the Neck of the Womb so that the lower 

 surface of the organ comes to look upwards or to one side, is a 

 curious form of obstruction hitherto only seen in the cow. It 

 may be surmised when labour pains continue without any 

 appearance of water-bags, and conclusive evidence is furnished 

 by the neck of the womb being closed and thrown into spiral 

 folds. Place the patient with its head uphill to relax the 

 twisted neck, and introducing the hand into the womb, seize 

 the foetus and press it against the uterine walls, while one or 

 two men roll the cow on its other side in the same direction in 

 which the twist has taken place. If the womb is not distended 

 by decomposition of a dead foetus, nor attached to adjacent 



